TY - JOUR
T1 - Neonatal palliative care
T2 - developing consensus among neonatologists using the Delphi technique in Portugal
AU - Mendes, Joana C. C.
AU - Silva, Lincoln Justo da
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - Pediatric palliative care in Portugal is improving, but there is still additional work to do concerning programs or guidelines for this subject. In Portugal, physicians are the stakeholders in the decisionmaking process with reference to the transition to palliative care in the neonatal intensive care unit, and it was considered very important to raise their awareness and motivation about neonatal palliative care. Our research was based on Catlin and Carter's protocol from 2002 and the main goal was to assess neonatologists' willingness to build a palliative care and end-of-life protocol that could be acceptable nationwide. The survey used the Delphi technique and was developed in 3 rounds. The expert panel was composed of 57 participants who represented 41% of the Portuguese neonatologists. The study was conducted via the Internet, based in a researcher-created private Web site, and e-mail was used for data collection and feedback. Neonatologists agreed on 7 areas: (1) planning (medical education, resources, and local), (2) prenatal palliative care, (3) neonatal palliative care criteria, (4) the parents (presenting neonatal palliative care to parents, including then in the daily care of newborns and in family-centered care), (5) physicians' needs, (6) pain and symptom management, and (7) end-of-life care (withholding/ withdrawing ventilation and hydration/nutrition).
AB - Pediatric palliative care in Portugal is improving, but there is still additional work to do concerning programs or guidelines for this subject. In Portugal, physicians are the stakeholders in the decisionmaking process with reference to the transition to palliative care in the neonatal intensive care unit, and it was considered very important to raise their awareness and motivation about neonatal palliative care. Our research was based on Catlin and Carter's protocol from 2002 and the main goal was to assess neonatologists' willingness to build a palliative care and end-of-life protocol that could be acceptable nationwide. The survey used the Delphi technique and was developed in 3 rounds. The expert panel was composed of 57 participants who represented 41% of the Portuguese neonatologists. The study was conducted via the Internet, based in a researcher-created private Web site, and e-mail was used for data collection and feedback. Neonatologists agreed on 7 areas: (1) planning (medical education, resources, and local), (2) prenatal palliative care, (3) neonatal palliative care criteria, (4) the parents (presenting neonatal palliative care to parents, including then in the daily care of newborns and in family-centered care), (5) physicians' needs, (6) pain and symptom management, and (7) end-of-life care (withholding/ withdrawing ventilation and hydration/nutrition).
KW - Delphi technique
KW - End-of-life care
KW - Neonatal palliative care protocol
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892619226&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000037
DO - 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000037
M3 - Article
C2 - 24300959
AN - SCOPUS:84892619226
SN - 1536-0903
VL - 13
SP - 408
EP - 414
JO - Advances in Neonatal Care
JF - Advances in Neonatal Care
IS - 6
ER -